Workshop: Slave trade memories
The workshop aimed at fostering transatlantic debates by bringing in voices from Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to discuss the coincidences, convergences or divergences in memorial practices/aesthetics in their works. From the discussions, certain trends stood out quite clear: authors use archival sources creatively to bring the history closer to the body; to underline the spectral continuity of slave trade/trauma in current inequalities in Africa/the diaspora. New narratives on slave trade subverting meta-narratives about culpability/responsibility and unearth existing silences/taboos. New approaches to historiography need to move away from focus on mere eventfulness and rather put emphasis on the concomitant and piecemeal processes of liberation/agency as well social, psychological and spiritual dimensions of the slave trade. The participants of the workshop (organizers, Cluster fellows, and guests) are currently submitting their contributions for an edited volume.
